The idea for the film was initially shut down.
Disney was working on a sequel to the popular live-action mermaid comedy “Splash” (1984) when Ron Clements pitched “The Little Mermaid.”
Clements told Yahoo in 2016 that then-Disney execs Michael Eisenberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg temporarily nixed his idea because they thought doing two mermaid movies would be too much.
But they later returned to “The Little Mermaid” when they realized it was “a fairy tale [Disney] hadn’t done.”
Ursula was inspired by a famous drag queen.
Baltimore-based drag queen and actress Divine inspired early sketches of the iconic Disney villain, according to a Hazlitt report by Nicole Pasulka and Brian Ferree.
Unfortunately, Divine died a year before the movie was released and never got to see the character come to life.
Ursula isn’t technically an octopus.
Most fans would probably be quick to call the film’s sassy villain an octopus, but Ursula is actually a cecaelia, which is a mythical human-octopus hybrid.
The character doesn’t even have eight tentacles. She has six plus her two human arms, reportedly because animating the tentacles cost too much money.
Disney reportedly outsourced the animation of the bubbles that appear in the film.
Due to limited resources and the intense amount of animation work required for the film, Disney hired Pacific Rim Productions to hand-painted the bubbles seen throughout “The Little Mermaid,” according to “The Political Economy of Disney: The Cultural Capitalism of Hollywood.”
The directors were specific about the fact that they wanted each one done by hand, so every bubble throughout the entire film was unique.
Ariel’s features are based on actress Alyssa Milano’s.
During a 2013 appearance on Wendy Williams’ talk show, Alyssa Milano told the host that animator Glen Keane created Ariel in her likeness.
He used photos of the actress from when she was younger to perfect Ariel’s facial features, but Milano said she didn’t know she was the inspiration behind the character until the company asked her to host “The Making of the Little Mermaid.”
Ariel and Hercules are sort of cousins.
Ariel’s father, King Triton, is the son of Poseidon.
Given that Poseidon is Zeus’ brother, and Zeus is Hercules’ father, Ariel and Hercules are first cousins, once removed.
“The Little Mermaid” earned two Oscars for its music.
Considering this was Alan Menken’s first time composing a Disney film, it’s rather impressive he and Ashman won the awards for best original score and song at the 1990 Academy Awards.